The Happiest Place on Earth

Here it comes: cheeseball romantic details of my marriage that you may not care about. Guess what? I don't care! I can't help but declare from the blogging rooftops my intense love for my husband, Thomas Arthur Quinn. May 16Th will be our 5-year anniversary and sadly we will be apart. We're spending the summer down in California. That's right, we chose to move to Bakersfield during its peak hot season. We're crazy like that. That's just one more piece of evidence of Tom's love for me. He's willing to MELT all summer long just so I can be closer to my family. In any case, I have come down early to find a job while Tom finishes up some work in Heber.

We will be apart for over 3 weeks, which is the longest by far that we've been separated, and it's killing me. I'm only one week into it and contemplating jumping a train, changing my name to Bojangles, pasting my hair, or someone else's, to my cheeks, all in the hopes that I could safely arrive in Heber Utah just to see him before donning another disguise to return home. Why the disguise? I don't know; that's how crazy being apart is making me!

I'd like now to wander through the wooded glen of mushy feelings. You're welcome to join me. You're also welcome to skip this entire blog entry and go watch something on youtube. To each his own.

Tom loves Waterworld. I love Babes in Toyland. Tom came from a family of all boys, while I came from a predominately girl family. Tom loves Meatloaf. I love to eat meatloaf. Tom loves mountain biking. I never learned how to ride a bike. We are incompatible on so many levels, but I want to tell you how I feel about compatibility. We are not the same, because that would be boring. But we are compatible. We just fit together. We each bring a unique perspective to life. I know Tom has enlightened mine. He continues to teach me, help me discover more of who I am, and patiently helps me become the woman I want to be.

I always ask Tom, "why are you so good to me?" He replies each time, "because I love you." I always know he means it. It's not a competition, and he's not looking for anything in return. I pray every day to find ways to be good to him. He deserves the best, and I want to be my best for him.

Here's a list of great things Tom does, that I don't deserve, but I love:

1. When I say, "oh I'm so thirsty." and we're lying in bed and he was in bed before me, he'll get up and go get me a big glass of ice water, even though I'll inevitably only take 3 sips before falling asleep.
2. He loves me even after I eat eggs. Nothing further.
3. He cuddles with me all through the night.
4. He shops with me, which I don't make him do often.
5. He listens to me as I work things out audibly, even when I don't want an answer.
6. He supports me going back to school before he finishes.
7. He does the dishes. He loves to do dishes. It's crazy!
8. He sings me lullabies every time I ask him to, even though I'm 25.
9. We do tradsies; I rub his shoulders for 5 minutes and he rubs mine for 50.

Here's a list of things that just make me gaga for Tom:

1. His blue eyes.
2. He's so excited for Christmas that he gets up at 4:00 am and walks around the neighborhood, waiting for everyone else to wake up.
3. Whenever he performs: comedy, music, sports.
4. His Christopher Walkin impersonation.
5. His 100% home teaching record, not because it's a record, but because he has a love for and testimony of the work that makes it not work.
6. When he laughs at goofy things I say until he cries, not because they're witty, but because he loves me and I can see it.
7. His family. I met Tom's family two weeks into our dating and just fell in love with them, possibly before I fell in love with him.
8. He holds my hand, even when we're driving in the car.
9. He continues to dream and dream big!
10. His freckles, all of them.

I will be able to bare being away from Tom for our anniversary because I know that we can be together forever. I pray each day that I will live worthy of him. I could be doing the most exciting activity on earth, but without Tom, it's just not complete. I could be doing the most boring, mundane nothingness, but when Tom's there, it becomes the happiest place on Earth.


I love you baby.